What's the best tide to fish Windang Bridge and the Lake Illawarra entrance?

The run-out tide is the standout — the draining lake pulls prawns and baitfish through the channel and the flathead, bream and mulloway stack up to meet them. Aim to arrive around the top of the tide and fish it down, with dawn, dusk and the change of light the best windows. Note that most adult anglers need a paid NSW Recreational Fishing Fee receipt to fish anywhere in NSW, including from the rock walls and the flats here — limited exemptions apply, including under-18s and Pensioner Concession Card holders. Fishing from the Windang Bridge deck itself is signposted as prohibited, so it is not part of the plan.

Can you catch mulloway at the Lake Illawarra entrance?

Yes — the deeper holes in the channel near Windang Bridge turn up mulloway after dark, most reliably on the bigger run-out tides. Live prawn, squid or a large soft plastic fished across the top of the tide is the standard approach. Mulloway in NSW have a 70cm minimum length and a bag limit of 1 per person, with a boat limit of 2 per boat per day when two or more people are aboard, so it is one fish and one fish only from the wall.

When is the prawn run at Lake Illawarra and how do you catch them?

The lake prawn run fires through summer, with the dark of the moon the prime time. Scoopers wade the shallows with a hand dip or scoop net, a bright light or headtorch and a bucket, and the main channel near the entrance is a classic spot. A dip or scoop net is not named in the entrance closure, so it is still allowed there, but hand-hauled, push and scissors prawn nets, hoop and lift nets, crab traps and lobster traps are all banned there all year, and so is spearfishing. Prawning counts as fishing in NSW, so the Recreational Fishing Fee applies.

Is the Windang entrance safe for fishing with kids?

The reserve side is fine for kids — Reddall Reserve just west of the bridge has flat grass, shallow edges, sealed parking and picnic facilities. The water directly under and beside Windang Bridge is not safe for kids in or near the water: the tidal current through the entrance is strong and fast, especially on the run-out, so keep children well back from the channel and the rock walls.

What size and bag limits apply to flathead and bream here?

Dusky flathead in NSW have a 36–70cm slot — keep fish from 36cm up to 70cm and release anything over 70cm — with a daily bag limit of five. Yellowfin bream have a 25cm minimum and a daily bag of ten, shared across bream and tarwhine rather than ten of each. These are NSW-wide rules; confirm the current numbers with NSW DPIRD, and remember the Recreational Fishing Fee is required to fish in NSW.

Bite Compass

Bite Forecast

Lake Illawarra Entrance (Windang)

Sun 20 Sep 2026 · Australia/Sydney

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20 Sep

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Today Tomorrow Sat 19 Sep

📍 Lake Illawarra Entrance (Windang)

first quarter · 59%

Weather: Sunny Wind: N 358° · 5 km/h Swell: 0.3 m @ 8 s SE Water: 18.0 °C Pressure: 1016.8 hPa ↓ falling

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 6:30 pm

Solunar Major window

Time of day Dusk

Tide Moving

Wind NW 15 km/h

Moon first quarter all day

Water temp 18.0 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Day timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:24 am Last light 6:15 pm

High 2:54 am Low 7:54 am High 2:50 pm Low 9:56 pm

Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:30 pm → 8:00 pm

2h 30m

Good

5:00 am → 6:30 am

1h 30m

First light

5:24 am

Last light

6:15 pm

Sunrise

5:49 am

Sunset

5:51 pm

Moonrise

11:25 am

Moonset

1:48 am

High tide

2:54 am

Low tide

7:54 am

High tide

2:50 pm

Low tide

9:56 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☀️

11°

←︎

281°

8 km/h

1am

☀️

11°

←︎

285°

7 km/h

2am

☀️

10°

←︎

286°

8 km/h

3am

☀️

10°

←︎

285°

8 km/h

4am

☀️

10°

←︎

283°

8 km/h

5am

☀️

11°

↖︎

299°

4 km/h

6am

☀️

13°

↑︎

338°

2 km/h

7am

☀️

17°

↗︎

48°

3 km/h

8am

☀️

20°

↗︎

66°

5 km/h

9am

☀️

23°

→︎

70°

6 km/h

10am

☀️

25°

↗︎

67°

6 km/h

11am

☀️

27°

↗︎

49°

5 km/h

12pm

☀️

28°

↑︎

358°

5 km/h

1pm

☀️

29°

↖︎

319°

8 km/h

2pm

☀️

29°

↖︎

305°

12 km/h

3pm

☀️

29°

↖︎

299°

16 km/h

4pm

☀️

29°

↖︎

297°

18 km/h

5pm

☀️

28°

↖︎

296°

17 km/h

6pm

☀️

26°

↖︎

296°

15 km/h

7pm

☀️

23°

↖︎

298°

12 km/h

8pm

☀️

21°

↖︎

300°

8 km/h

9pm

☀️

18°

↖︎

303°

5 km/h

10pm

☀️

17°

↖︎

295°

3 km/h

11pm

🌧️

16°

←︎

252°

2 km/h

Hourly Swell

Steady ~0.3 m SE

12am

0.5 m

@ 8 s

↘︎

Slight

1am

0.5 m

@ 8 s

↘︎

Calm

2am

0.5 m

@ 8 s

↘︎

Calm

3am

0.4 m

@ 8 s

↘︎

Calm

4am

0.4 m

@ 8 s

↘︎

Calm

5am

0.4 m

@ 8 s

↘︎

Calm

chop

6am

0.4 m

@ 8 s

↘︎

Calm

chop

7am

0.4 m

@ 8 s

↘︎

Calm

chop

8am

0.4 m

@ 8 s

↘︎

Calm

chop

9am

0.4 m

@ 9 s

↘︎

Calm

10am

0.4 m

@ 9 s

↓︎

Calm

11am

0.3 m

@ 9 s

↓︎

Calm

12pm

0.3 m

@ 8 s

↘︎

Calm

1pm

0.3 m

@ 8 s

↘︎

Calm

2pm

0.3 m

@ 8 s

↘︎

Calm

3pm

0.3 m

@ 9 s

↓︎

Calm

4pm

0.3 m

@ 10 s

↓︎

Calm

5pm

0.3 m

@ 10 s

↓︎

Calm

6pm

0.3 m

@ 9 s

↓︎

Calm

7pm

0.3 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Calm

8pm

0.3 m

@ 8 s

↘︎

Calm

chop

9pm

0.3 m

@ 7 s

↘︎

Calm

chop

10pm

Calm

11pm

Calm

Water Temp (°C)

→ steady around 18.0°

Thu

17 Sep

17.7°

Fri

18 Sep

17.8°

Sat

19 Sep

17.9°

Sun

20 Sep

18.0°

Mon

21 Sep

18.1°

Tue

22 Sep

18.1°

Wed

23 Sep

18.1°

Thu

24 Sep

—

Fri

25 Sep

—

Sat

26 Sep

—

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 5 km/h N (358°).

Wind map data: ECMWF HRES (operational), updated every 6 hours. Not for navigation.

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:30 pm → 8:00 pm

2h 30m

Good

5:00 am → 6:30 am

1h 30m

First light

5:24 am

Last light

6:15 pm

Sunrise

5:49 am

Sunset

5:51 pm

Moonrise

11:25 am

Moonset

1:48 am

High tide

2:54 am

Low tide

7:54 am

High tide

2:50 pm

Low tide

9:56 pm

Nearby spots

Species at this spot

Dusky Flathead
Yellowfin Bream
Sand Whiting
Luderick
Mulloway (Jewfish)
Tailor
Australian Salmon